Bassem Fouad’s Journey To Excellence In The Food Industry

We recently had the privilege of interviewing Bassem Fouad, Chairman and CEO of KAYY Foods, a pioneering oatmeal brand in Egypt. What started as a graduation project, exceptional leadership, and vision of Bassem reshaped the entire food sector of Egypt with KAYY Foods. Aligning with his goal to make protein accessible to all, the brand today offers a wide range of healthy snacking and oatmeal options. With KAYY Foods, Bassem is transforming the way society views protein.

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Spark Behind the Journey

We started the interview by asking, “Could you start by telling us about your professional journey and inspiration behind jumping into this industry?

Bassem shared, “I graduated from the American University in Cairo back in 2016 with a degree in Economics and Finance. I started KAYY back in college, as it was actually my graduation project. I took it from PowerPoint to real life, and that’s how I usually say it was never actually my passion to work specifically in oats or in food manufacturing. But my passion was healthy eating and the proteinification of things. So, I delved into protein genome projects and genetic engineering, as well as DNA sequencing, and I always had this wish of having free protein for everyone. Like, I’ve studied this in Economics, how protein is becoming so scarce, while population growth is booming.

In the Middle East, we love protein, and it comes from cows, sheep, and chicken, and we never have it in terms of everyday centers, like candy or lollipops. People demand protein, and now it comes in the form of supplements, and it might show up in the form of gym powders as well. It has always been related to health, health-consciousness, athletics, and people often narrow down protein.”

He added, “So I’ve always been into oats, as I eat oats personally. I go to the gym, I work out, and I make my own oatmeal. We had these Quaker high-protein oats, which were very famous in Egypt back in 2015. And then we had this devaluation of the currency, the very first one in 2016, and that was a major shock to the Egyptian economy. So people had to stop importing the Quaker protein oatmeal and replace it with local brands. Fortunately, I was the only local brand back then, so my sales boomed. I had 10x sales overnight, and I had the largest market share, with zero competition. That boosted KAYY Foods, and then we had the strongest year ever. I started to reinvest the revenues back into my main operations and business, and we started to rent our very first production facility.

We always produce everything in-house, as I believe I must own the means of production, and want to ensure that all the R&D, packaging requirements, hygiene, everything must be in-house so I can control everything.”

More about KAYY Foods

We were interested to learn more about the products offered at KAYY Foods. So, we asked Bassem Fouad to share with us the current offerings of the brand.

Bassem mentioned, “Initially, we started with 300-gram packets of oats. The high-protein oats come in strawberry, coconut, blueberry, apple, cinnamon, apple cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, and other flavours. Everyone found their passion, their place with KAYY Foods. We satisfied every want and need, be it the flavor or the size, and it is very convenient too. You can prepare KAYY Oatmeals in like two to three minutes; just add hot milk or water, and then you stir it. It comes into creamy and consistent form, with no off-flavors. The flavorings we use are very natural, and they mask the blunt flavor of oats and the sharp, strong flavor of proteins that we add.

We source all the ingredients locally in Alexandria. We don’t usually import ingredients from abroad, so we can have some sort of hedge against the USD. The packaging material itself also comes from Egypt, as we have very prominent packaging suppliers here. We pack in standard pouches with zippers to lock for freshness.”

“Our packs provide 30 grams of protein per 100-gram serving, and it usually comes from the milk powder that we add and the whey protein concentrate and isolate that we usually add to most of our products. Because some of our products are vegan, we add pea protein, rice protein, and soy protein to complement the nutrition facts and also serve the vegan market, which is also growing here in Egypt, especially for those who have lactose intolerance or are vegan for religious reasons.

We also have these protein extruded snacks like protein puffs, oat rings, oat pasta, rice meals, wheat berries, and fortified proteins. Alongside these, we have oat noodles, and instant ramen that comes in oats in their formulations.

Our oatmeals come in different formats, like the ready-to-eat refrigerated oatmeal protein cups, with pureed fruit on the bottom, and then you have the oats already soaked. You can just stir it, peel the lid, stir it, and eat it ready. You know, it’s fresh, refrigerated. And we had the opportunity to be the first in the market to offer this in Egypt,” he added.

Plans in Pipeline for KAYY Foods

Interested in learning more, we asked Bassem Fouad to share a glimpse of his future plans for KAYY Foods.

He responded, “What’s next for KAYY Foods is that we are expanding rapidly. As we export to a lot of countries, in the GCC region, Africa, South Africa, Libya, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, and Nigeria, we are aiming for an IPO in the Egyptian Stock Exchange by next year or by 2027 at the latest. We’re going to list up to twenty-five percent of our shares to the market for capital increase purposes and to expand production facilities without reliance on debt, and lower our profitability with debt and EBITDA.

We would like to have more shareholders and engage in profitable ventures later on in our journey. What we are also capable of doing now is that we market our products as food, we are food manufacturers. We don’t usually say that we’re supplements, as we don’t do supplements. We want everyone to understand that protein is for everyone, and you can have protein-fortified everything without having to narrow it down as being just for gym people or gym goers. KAYY is not for gym people; it is a lifestyle brand. You can have KAYY at any occasion, whether it’s pasta, noodles, popcorn, protein bars, granola, or muesli; all of our products are centered around your day, and you can have it anytime and in any way you like.”

Impactful Lessons in Career Path

We then asked, “As a professional in this field, what are a few lessons that helped you in leading your work and team?”

“Over these years, we’ve built a very strong team of engineers, and some of them have been working with me from days even before I launched KAYY back at AUC, as we were working on this part of the graduation project. They’re still working with me up to now. And I think one of the most impactful things we have had during our journey is that we retain people, we retain skills, and we keep on investing in the people that we love, the people that we care about whether they are our customers or our team members,” Bassem reflected.

Embracing Innovative Practices

Nowadays, AI is everywhere. Even businesses are adapting to it increasingly. So, we asked Bassem Fouad, “What are your thoughts on this?”

He explained, “AI is going to change everything, and it has changed KAYY Foods dramatically. From finance to accounting, HR, everything now is AI at KAYY. Claude has built us a KAYY CRM, that we rely on to automate things that take a lot of time and effort from us, because we need to focus on manufacturing and R&D. So automation and digitization are key elements of food manufacturing firms. I think everyone who works in supply chain and food logistics, or anything that is labor-intensive, needs to automate things, making things seamless and faster.

Speed is very important because in FMCG and CPG, speed is everything. The barrier to entry is low, so what really keeps you on your toes every day is speed. Being very confident, a risk-taker, and hedged from the market turbulence is what really keeps you ahead of the competition. Turning a blind eye, especially to AI and the latest software, would mean falling behind.

I tell my team every day they need to know what’s in the market, not what our competitors are doing, but what people need, or want, and what they are talking about. We need to be the mirror of the consumer’s mind. If the consumer really wants convenience, and we’re not providing it to them, then you have failed as a brand to satisfy their need and want. We must provide what our customer wants in two to three years from now. I think this is how you will win, of course.

So when we figured out early on that people want protein in everything, we did way earlier than our competitors because we knew it before everyone else. Acting earlier and faster than everyone, while being agile and diligent, attracts overnight success.

We have also made a lot of mistakes, like launching a product without having the barcode printed. This was very early on at the time we launched. And we had to go and print the barcodes using a different label, and print the stickers on each and every pouch to compensate for the barcode that we couldn’t print on the pouch itself. So yes, things can happen, but of course, I’d rather be sorry than be late, this is my motto. The market will never forgive you if you’re late, of course.”

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Professionals

Lastly, we asked, “What would be your advice to beginners in this field or in any field of business?”

Bassem shared, “My advice would be to never listen to customers’ feedback. Though it sounds wrong, remember, never listen to everyone. Listening to the customers, usually in a country that is highly diverse, like Egypt, you will get confused if you keep listening to everyone. You will never satisfy anyone and everyone, and you will never do your job or get anything ready or done.

So, if you think as a company, and your team, R&D, engineers, and your friends and family, and a bunch of like ten random people from the street think the product tastes good and it will work and you’re satisfied with the result, just launch it and get it on the shelves. And later on, you can iterate, execute multiple, or even try other experiments. But never take all the customer feedback, personally or professionally. Because they will really deter your success, and will have high chances of bringing down your speed and lowering your intuition. So, leave the market, just work, launch products, and execute.

However, make sure that you’re always learning, and staying updated with the industry regulations. It’s very important to know the laws and the rules and the market, what should be done, what should be written, and what should not be.

I never waste time, be it conferences, events, or exhibitions as it leads to a waste of a lot of time and resources and does not always guarantee to expose you in front of the right people or markets. You always need your firm or your company to have some sort of secrets and trade secrets, so don’t expose your upcoming launches, and let the copycats win. Always focus on creating a strong identity.

Always have your sovereignty, try to manufacture everything in-house because trust me, if you do not have sovereignty, if you do not own the means of production, you’re not going to make it long term. Eventually, you must have everything in-house, and own your means of production. It’s not necessarily important to own the place, the factory itself, or the warehouse; it could be rented, but your production lines and team must be fully owned. So if you want to have your own market, then you must have your own people, because it gives you a competitive advantage. So always make sure that you have everything in-house, so that you are ahead of the curve, while being customer-centric as well.”

Connect with Bassem Fouad on LinkedIn to gain industry insights.

Find KAYY Foods on LinkedIn and visit their website to learn more.